A print of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla in San Antonio by San Antonio native Matt Frank. Frank illustrates "Godzilla: Rulers of Earth" No. 1, a new comic series by IDW Publishing.

A print of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla in San Antonio by San Antonio native Matt Frank. Frank illustrates "Godzilla: Rulers of Earth" No. 1, a new comic series by IDW Publishing.

Photo: Courtesy

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Godzilla terrified Japan in the 1950s movie premiere. Now he lives in a post-apocalyptic world.

Godzilla terrified Japan in the 1950s movie premiere. Now he lives in a post-apocalyptic world.

Photo: Courtesy

Drawing out Godzilla artist

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It took Matt Frank a lot of years and a lot of felt-tip pens, but the San Antonio native finally can draw Godzilla the way he's always wanted: stomping through the pages of a major comic book series.

Frank's dream comes true in “Godzilla: Rulers of Earth,” a new ongoing comic by IDW Publishing written by Chris Mowry. Frank will be in town Thursday to sign copies of his latest monster mash at Heroes & Fantasies, 4923 NW Loop 410.

Drawing Godzilla as a regular series artist has long been Frank's white whale, or, as Frank would say, his charcoal gray kaiju, a Japanese term for monster. Frank's previous work includes cover art for IDW's “Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters,” as well as single-issue interiors for “Godzilla: Legends” No. 1 and “Mars Attacks the Transformers.”

We caught up with Frank to talk about his big new gig and what else about Godzilla makes him stomp for joy.

Q: Drawing sequential art of Godzilla is much harder than just whipping up a comic cover. Talk about the risks and rewards of bringing Godzilla to life as the interior artist of a comic series.

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A: I won't lie. It's been a learning experience because I've never done that before. I've never had to do a monthly book. And what they don't tell you is: You can't stop. You have to keep going. It's really one of those things where you have to have a lot of personal discipline for this. You have to make decisions about what you have time to do, what you need to be doing.

Q: What does it mean for you as a fan to draw this full-on Godzilla title?

A: My love of Godzilla was what really launched my career and really made it so that I could do this full time. Heck, I've been considering for a really long time getting a Godzilla tattoo.... I think all Godzilla fans want to work, in some way, on Godzilla or work with Toho (the Japanese company that launched Godzilla). It is one of those dreams, one of those bucket list things.

Q: What's the narrative direction and tone of the comic?

A: So basically the tone of the story is the world's been destroyed and it's been reborn. It's a different world. It's a world where it's not really the apocalypse anymore. It's not been the apocalypse for the last two years in the ongoing.

This isn't necessarily the apocalypse as it is new threats emerge and a world that kind of knows what it's in for is responding to it, from both sides — from the human side and the monster side. It's almost like humans kind of have to start learning how to live with the monsters as opposed to always and forever against them.

Q: You tackle some controversy in the first issue with the appearance of the so-called Zilla monster from the 1998 “Godzilla” film. What was it like drawing such a polarizing depiction of Godzilla?

A: Well, for a lot of people it's just not Godzilla anymore. And Toho recognizes it as a separate creature in the canon. ... Honestly for me it was a lot of fun because the creature is such a dynamic design and it has a lot of really interesting design ticks. It burrows underground and it's really fast. We emphasized it was a melee fighter.

We also had some fun with the whole concept of the movie itself, like all the hype surrounding the movie. We even kind of played up the whole (thing) when they kind of kept the creature a secret for the big part of the movie, and even the marketing campaign.

A: Actually I recently purchased from Guzu Gallery in Austin the Shogun Warriors Godzilla (toy from the 1970s). Rather, I'm going to purchase it when the book comes out....

So I would say that aside from the big Shogun Warrior Godzilla, a lot of these Japanese books that I have that are really in-depth and have a lot of really great production material behind them, those are some of my prized possessions. I also have a great little collection of Godzilla manga, Japanese comics.

Q: You create special Godzilla prints for convention appearances. What's your favorite or most popular?

A: Whenever I'm in Texas, whenever anybody around me is from around Texas, they always gravitate towards (my) Godzilla versus Mechagodzilla in San Antonio print. That's probably one of my most popular prints, because San Antonio has a really big Godzilla fan base, which is surprising to me. ...

My other really popular one is probably my Godzilla versus Transformers print. That might be my all-time best-seller.

Q: Next year's “Godzilla” film looks to celebrate the monster's 60th anniversary in grand style. What would you like to see in the movie?

A: A lot of Godzilla fans will say, “Oh I really hope that it looks like Godzilla” or “I really hope they make Godzilla scary” or “I hope that they do this or do that, that they pay tribute to the Japanese series.”

I'm not terribly worried about that anymore because everything that I've been seeing has led me to believe that they are getting the tone right. That's not even a concern anymore. They KNOW they're making a Godzilla movie. ...

They got Akira Takarada, the star of the original Godzilla movie, as a cameo in this new movie. That right there is really evident that they are listening to the fans or they have a reverence for the classic film.

The point I'm laboriously trying to get (at) is that those things are not worrying me anymore. I just want a good movie at this point.

Q: Any closing thoughts about your new Godzilla adventure?

A: I hope people like the book enough to want to go buy it so that we can keep doing it, because Chris and I are such big fans and have such great ideas for what we want to do. We'll spend hours just talking about ideas. We've got stuff that we know (would) make the fans' heads explode if they knew the kind of stuff that we were planning.

And granted, a lot of it has to go through approval process, and stuff's going to get lost in the shuffle. But at the moment I'm amazed at what we're getting away with.